Miller 200Dx specs vs Thermal Arc 185 - which has more grunt?

Correction : 3/16" or 1/4" would be the likely Al thickness limit with these two welders.

The Miller Dynasty 200DX is the stronger of the 2 machines. If you want an even higher duty cycle go for a DC only Maxstar 200DX.

The Miller can meet and exceed the Thermal in AC output, plus it has variable AC arc frequency, which increases the percentage of the heat that goes into the metal on AC with higher frequencies.

The only thing the Thermal has going for it over the Miller is price. are the benefits of the Miller worth US$1000 more.

Thank You Ernie - Now I can start shopping around - Almost bought a used synchrowave 250 but the cost of getting in a new 200A service to get enough capacity would have equalled the welder!

From your posts you use your Maxstar on a genset - Any issues with the variations in voltage as the genset loads and unloads, eg. Are the Millers happy with less than perfect frequency / voltage regulation?

I had to add some frictional damping on my 4000 Watt Briggs and Stratton powered Dayton set to keep the throttle from hunting. ( Used a piece of foam on a weighted arm hinged against the throttle quadrant - by adjusting the weight one can acheive critical damping on the throttle response - looks a bit odd but it works)

Graham

Syncrowave 250s are wonderful. I am on my second one now. I sold my analog version 2 years ago and upgraded to the digital model. Still great machines all around.

On 220v single phase, they are happiest with a 80 - 90 amp circuit. On heavy aluminum they will pop a 60 amp breaker after 15 minutes or so.

Miller is very proud of how tough their inverters are. I called and asked Miller about running my Maxstar from a cheap generator before I did it. They said no problem. The Autoline circuit in the Miller can easily handle the variations the generator can put out.

Thermal Arc inverters aren't as happy with generators, at least small cheap generators.

Autoline is the one thing Miller has that no other inverter maker has, but it only becomes a dealbreaker if you plan on doing a lot of location work.

The Lincoln Invertec 205 is 110v/220v, but it costs the same as a Dynasty 200DX so why bother?

A 4000 watt genset will not be able to fully power a Dynasty 200DX, but it will weld from it. You reallly need a 5500 or 6000 watt genset for full power.

I have run 1/8" 7018 stick from my Maxstar from a 110v wall outlet with no trouble.

Now *that* is impressive!!

What is even more impressive is that Miller garrantees that you can run

1/8" 7018 and 6010 from a Maxstar 150 running on 110v power. No other inverter maker can even claim 6010 compatibility, let alone running 1/8" rod from a 110v machine.

Back to Readywelders (-: OK, so I know a readywelder can work well on a TIG machine - we've seen that said more than a few times, also that it makes a good rig with the

185TSW.

I'm having a brain constipation over whether or not a "regular" spool gun could work on a TIG machine. Its probably that CV vs CC thang again, but if the readywelder overcomes it why not say Miller's 15A/30A ? and what could be bought and adapted to make it work ?

Readywelders have a circuit board in them that "normal" spoolguns don't have. It allows the gun to be used on any power source.

The only other wire feeders that have this kind of circuit are suitcase wire feeders used on construction sites for running heavy flux-core wire from stick welding power sources.

I don't understand why you would prefer a "normal" spoolgun over a readywelder since most "normal" spoolguns cost twice as much as a readywelder.

The cheapest "normal" spoolguns cost the same as a readywelder, and have lower duty cycles.

A Miller 30A is the best spoolgun on the market, but... It's base price is around $800, and to run it off of a machine that doesn't have the controller built in requires an additional $400 external controller box.

Yes a Miller 30A is a much better gun, but it is a matter of finances and machine compatibility. It has never been a priority to Miller to allow the 30A to run from non-Miller machines.

MK Products makes the Price guns and Cobramatic to run from other peoples machines. Systematics makes spoolguns for Licoln and for general use on other machines. There are several other makers that mak lower end generic small spoolguns, but the Readywelder costa as much or less than any of them and is better designed.

I was out at Ed Haas's place last night and we finally got around to hooking up his new Readywelder. It took about 10 minutes to set it up, and it ran fine from his Econotig. All we had was some flux-core wire, but it ran just fine. Great guns. I really wish I was on commision with Readywelder.

Is the Ready weld circuit board just a seperate power supply for the wire feed motor or is it some feedback circuit or arc voltage sensor designed to help keep a constant stickout?

Unfortunately NO, because to run the Readywelder the machine is in Stick mode, not TIG mode. For a pulser to work with the spoolgun it would have to control the wire feed motor as well as the power.

Yes, I can weld 3/32" 7018 and 1/8" 6011 all day long plugged into a

12ft compusa surge strip which is plugged into a 9ft generic power strip which is plugged into a somewhat loaded 15amp circuit and it wont trip. The maxstar output 'wants' to run anything. The output is, from memory, very roughly about 24 vdc base with about 4vac rms riding on it, ie pulsing sinusoidally from 24vdc to 36vdc at maybe around 60 hz, all the while there is a 300khz noise component riding 10volts on either side of the waveform(switching noise, not hf, but may act a little like it by possibly improving arc stability). Either they are geniuses at miller, or the Maxstar is not of terrestrial origin. However, 6011 it likes a LOT better than 6010. 6010 will run fine too, but the welds will look like the rods were plucked off the ugly tree. At 150amps on 220v, I can't tell much difference between my 200amp ac/dc inverter and the Maxstar 150 running 1/8" 11018 on 1/4" pipe.

stagesmith wrote: